CD19 CAR EngTregs: The Next Step in Autoimmune Disease Cell Therapy?

Annaiz Grimm, BS, a research scientist at Seattle Children's Research Institute
Credit: LinkedIn

In recent years, cell therapy has become a key new modality of interest to the field of autoimmune disease. Although many of the initial efforts have focused on CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy, the lab of David Rawlings, MD, the director of the Center for Immunity and Immunotherapies at Seattle Children's Research Institute, is instead looking into the potential use of engineered regulatory T-cells (EngTregs) for tackling autoimmune disease.

Annaiz Grimm, BS, a research scientist at Seattle Children's Research Institute, presented some of the Rawlings Lab's work in this space at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT) 28th Annual Meeting, held May 13 to 17, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to her talk, CGTLive® sat down with Grimm to learn more.

CGTLive: Can you give some background context about your presentation at ASGCT this year?

Annaiz Grimm, BS: I'm gonna be talking about CAR19 EngTregs as a therapeutic for autoimmune disease. Currently our treatments are mostly immunosuppressive therapies, which don't address the root cause of the disease. Then there's been some advances in our field using CAR19 therapeutics to deplete autoreactive B-cells, which are the root cause of these diseases. So we're working on developing novel therapeutics that maybe can expand and improve on these CAR-T therapeutics that have already been pretty exciting.

What will be the key points of your talk?

The talk will focus on how CD19 CAR EngTregs can suppress the formation of plasma cells and the associated secretion of autoreactive antibodies, which we know are drivers of immune disease. In addition, these CAR EngTregs can suppress T-cells, which we know are also important in driving disease. As such, this dual-arm approach might create a more efficacious treatment for a wider variety of patients.

How would you summarize the big picture implications that you would want doctors and the broader healthcare community to take away from that?

Scientists at Seattle Children's Research Institute and elsewhere are working to develop a wide range of tools, particularly with relation to CAR19 therapeutics in autoimmunity, so that we can treat a wide range of patients who may not respond to immunosuppressive therapies or might have relapsed with CAR-T therapies.

Are there any challenges in this space that still need to be addressed that you can discuss?

Broadly in the field with gene and cell therapy, there's a challenge with cost and manufacturing. These products can be difficult to create, and they can also be quite expensive, which limits their accessibility. As such, many people are working very hard to try and streamline production processes and reduce costs so that more patients can have access to these potentially curative treatments.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Click here to view more coverage of the 2025 ASGCT Annual Meeting.

REFERENCE
1. Grimm B, McKinney B, Vakil A, et al. CD19 CAR EngTreg effectively modulate activated human B cells and antibody-secreting plasma cells. Presented at: ASGCT 28th Annual Meeting, held May 13 to 17, 2025, in New Orleans, LA. Abstract #428